1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telescopic zoom lens system suitable for a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional telescopic zoom lens systems, a four-lens-group zoom lens system including a lens group having a positive refractive power (hereinafter, a positive lens group), a lens group having a negative refractive power (hereinafter, a negative lens group), a positive lens group and a positive lens group, in this order from the object, has been widely used, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JUPP) No. 2000-019398, JUPP No. 2002-006215, JUPP No. 2003-090958, JUPP No. 2003-202497, JUPP No. 2003-344766 and JUPP No. 2004-109559.
The above-discussed conventional telescopic zoom lens systems have been designed for a SLR camera with the 135 (35 mm) film format. Users already owning a lot of exchangeable photographing lenses for the 135 (35 mm) film format strongly wish to use a conventional exchangeable photographing lens with a recent digital SLR camera. Here, it should be understood that such a compatibility can be attained only when a digital SLR camera is provided with the same flange back length as that of a conventional SLR camera.
However, the size of an imaging device (CCD) of a digital SLR camera is considerably smaller than the frame size of the 135 (35 mm) film format. If an exchangeable photographing lens for the 135 (35 mm) film format is simply mounted on a digital SLR camera, the angle-of-view for photographing becomes smaller.
If an attempt is made, in a digital SLR camera, to maintain the same angle-of-view that can be attained in a conventional SLR camera, there is a need to shorten the focal length of an exchangeable photographing lens by the dimensional-ratio of frame size of the 135 (35 mm) film format to the size of an imaging device (CCD).
On the other hand, as discussed above, for the purpose of attaining the compatibility in which a conventional exchangeable photographing lens can be used with a digital SLR camera, the flange back length of a digital SLR camera has to be made the same as that of a conventional SLR camera. Accordingly, in the case when an exchangeable photographing lens for a digital SLR camera is newly designed, there exists a problem to be solved, i.e., both a shorter focal length and a longer back focal distance have to be attained at the same time. Here, note that just redesigning conventional photographing lenses for adjusting the same with the size of an imaging device (CCD) cannot solve the above problem, because according to such a simple re-scaling, when the focal length becomes shorter, the back focal distance also becomes shorter.
The present invention is to provide a miniaturized telescopic zoom lens system having the following features:
(i) an angle-of-view of approximately 10° to 30° (the zoom ratio: a little less than 3);
(ii) a long back focal distance;
(iii) a short focal length;
(iv) high optical quality; and
(v) high operability.